The Blog of Sue Brooks, Hervey Bay – Fraser Coast

Archive for the 'General News' Category

Just working, working, working these days but feel sad that I neglect my blog… This blog has always been mainly a friendly place and I miss the exchange of opinions and ideas. It seems Facebook has taken over this role somewhat but I find people can be nastier on Facebook also. It is sad that people sometimes obviously feel safe to be nasty electronically but I often wonder would the same words be said face to face! Me thinks not!
But we are very busy with our new Food Truck business which requires 4 am starts and is hard work for both of us but there weren’t many job offers coming our way so buying ourselves a job seemed sensible.
The house is still a work in progress…. Maybe the tiler that we have waited over 2 weeks now for a quote will get back to us tomorrow. I am so tempted to nag but decided better not… Once the tiling is finished the vanities and taps and showers go in and we can move in. What a relief that will be…
I also try hard not to get involved or care too much about Council stuff. I am appreciating a rest from that life and the hectic world that local politics is but I am still mad keen to ensure Hervey By is not spoiled and am glad that the market downturn is keeping the development at bay because this Council is very, very pro development!
Anyhow I hope you are snuggled up tight with this cold weather and that life is treating you with kindness. Take care as always..

What a very poor choice of headline in the Fraser Coast Chronicle today that trivialises such a very important issue. Anyone who has regularly visited any Council pound sees the end result of irresponsible cat and dog breeding. Beautiful, beautiful pets that spend their last days in a noisy horrible cage before that one way trip to the vet. Why do we as a society continue to turn a blind eye to a growing problem? We get upset about the way cattle are treated at an overseas abattoir, and rightly so, but here in our own towns and cities we are killing cats and dogs by the hundreds week in week out!

The Hervey Bay Animal Refuge (HBAR) is a privately run facility. It appears not to have a wide representative membership, regular public meetings or an open and accountable committee. I am unsure if it is in fact a legally functioning non profit organisation or registered charity. From what I
observe it is run more like a business. HBAR has a high turnover of volunteers and the most recent very hard working caretakers have just left. They say their treatment by ‘committee’ members was far from civil. Many other ex volunteers tell me similar stories.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with making a profit via rescuing pets in need. In fact without a profit rescue groups could not survive. But the Hervey Bay Animal Refuge continues to publicly plea for donations as well as having surrender fees and a large regular income via the Nikenbah markets, yet still continues to sell its pets undesexed! I know of no other animal rescue group that does not desex.

By not desexing HBAR is acting just like a pet shop. It is ensuring that it continues to have a never ending supply of pets by its lack of a desexing policy. The refuge is claiming to be raising funds for desexing. Has been doing so for months.. So where are these funds going? Selling non desexed cats and kittens for $10 each is irresponsible. While some new owners can and will do the right thing there will be many that won’t. Sadly at $10 a kitten it is also a cheap dinner for a hungry pet python! I desperately hope that no kittens are bought for any reason other than to become much loved and cared for and desexed family pets.

HBAR has a large cattery and excellent facilities and a sympathetic public. It is simply a great injustice to all the animal loving residents in our community that HBAR continues to sell undesexed pets. It is time that the community demanded they do the right thing. After all every other rescue group including the Maryborough Refuge can manage to sell desexed pets so there simply are no excuses!

Take care everybody. I hope that you have all survived the big wet and for those living and owning businesses adjacent the Mary River I truly hope that you can recover after the water recedes. For Burrum Heads residents that have had their houses and sheds battered with roofs lost I trust that your insurance will help you recover. For families that have lost loved ones my heart goes out to you.
I am so sad that our beautiful foreshore has also taken such a battering. Many, many trees have gone, fallen by the undermining erosion as has infrastructure such as at both Aqua Vue and Enzo’s in town and many foreshore parklands have also been decimated. Now is still the time to assist those in need and to help when and where we can. Take care everybody.

It is with a sense of relief that I see Cr George Seymour raising issues that failed to receive support by the previous Council. One such issue was the simple question of allowing Circuses that use exotic animals, access to Council controlled land. Maybe this brand new Council will be braver, bolder and stronger than the previous Council. I certainly hope so.
I believe that a developed intelligent and humane society, such as ours, realises that using animals for human entertainment is just plain wrong. Personally I am always disturbed at the idea that any animal is captured or born, confined and trained just to entertain the human variety of animal. The fact that people make money from exhibiting animals is also abhorrent. If you wish to learn about exotic animals visit a sanctuary or a properly run zoo. While a zoo is still not the best means of caring for animals a good zoo beats a travelling circus in each and every way. Australia Zoo is just down the road after all.
I truly hope that the majority of people who call the Fraser Coast home, agree with George, Stuart and myself and support the call to ban these Circuses from occupying our community land. Please teach your children to appreciate the needs and rights of all wild animals to live naturally in protected areas free from the threat of death or confinement at the hands of the earths top predator… us!

At the very last Council meeting for the FCRC Cr Sue Brooks advised of the recent letter she had received from Mr Warren Truss regarding the possibility of an MRI being located here on the Fraser Coast. The Honourable Mr Truss advises that we need to communicate with the Federal Minister for Health, Tanya Plibersek. It seems that the Federal Government will be granting Medicare eligibility to 12 MRI units between 2012 and 2015.

Cr Brooks believes it is essential that the Fraser Coast is at the very top of Ms Plibersek’s list to receive one of these permits. “In this day and age it is absolutely unacceptable that our residents, many of whom are elderly, frail or have life threatening health issues, are required to travel to Bundaberg or the Sunshine Coast to access an MRI. Trying to get an urgent booking for an MRI scan is not easy either and it must be very frustrating for our doctors to not have easier access to this essential and lifesaving technology.

One local Doctor already has a facility and is ready to purchase an MRI machine, all he needs is the Medicare eligibility.

Mayor Mick was pleased to receive this news and promised that he would write to Ms Plibersek immediately.

“I hope that we don’t have to wait till 2015 or even longer to receive the good news that the Fraser Coast will have its very own MRI. It is time that the Fraser Coast received the health services that it deserves. But our community can help. A petition and media campaigning will help to put us on the map and ensure that our needs are highlighted.” Cr Brooks is urging residents to also write to the Minister. “People power is a strong and worthwhile tool. Tell the Minister that we require this medical equipment sooner rather than later”.

I am so annoyed that our region has missed out on NBN. This network is our key to the future. We need it and we need it now. We do not want to be stuck in the internet dark ages. Please spread the word and lets collectively ask our Federal Leaders Paul and Warren what can be done!
We have suburban areas that can’t even access ADSL let alone the country areas.
The Fraser Coast needs to keep up with the Joneses. Yes Council has provided the Widelinx network which is an excellent tool for business, but residential users require fast, affordable and fail safe internet connectivity also. I am always surprised how many of my friends, colleagues and neighbours earn or supplement their living via the net. We live in a rapidly changing world. We need to be on the NBN train not left behind.

TURTLES and DUGONGS. The first issue was broadcast on the ABC and thank goodness that they warned people that the story would involve upsetting pictures and film so I had a chance to turn it off! I cannot bear to watch innocent creatures being cruelly treated. Yes we need to kill animals to eat them but if we kill them quickly they usually do not suffer. Especially if caught and killed in the wild. But the methods used to hunt and kill protected species and other wildlife by some members of our indigenous communities, are quite simply horrific. The excuse that the cruel killing methods are used because of cultural reasons just doesn’t wash with me. Tinny boats rather than wooden canoes, petrol fuelled motors and many other modern day tools are used to hunt and kill these protected and vulnerable animals. Culture is not an excuse. It is time we all shouted loudly that we will not tolerate cruelty for any reason. Even locally in Hervey Bay I am told turtles are taken. What on earth for? No one living here has to hunt wild animals! Move on please, relegate your cultural habits to the past and make them a part of your history and not a part of your present!

KONY 2012.

Watch the video and learn about another human horror. We are shown how one man is responsible for kidnapping and training children to do unspeakable things. I am not sure that the power of the world’s ordinary peoples, powered by Facebook, Youtube and the internet can make a difference but hey the numbers of people now aware of Joseph Kony and his childrens army in Uganda amounts to millions. Maybe the shouts of disgust from right across our globe will shame someone somewhere into stopping this barbaric man. Some say it is all a big money making exercise for a charity! But I would rather err on the side of action. When we see wrong and we do nothing.. Well badness can prosper! Please watch the video and see what you think!

As I wandered along our bit of beach the other morning walking our small pack of foster dogs… I couldn’t help feel nothing but gratitude that I live here. When I think about all the other places I could live throughout this wide brown land, and even further away over the ocean, I keep returning to the wonderful relaxed feeling of being ‘home’. So why has this patch of earth called the Fraser Coast become my home?

I was born over the sea in a far away land. My parents chose to come to this young country only to give us their children, a better life. What a sacrifice they made leaving everyone and everything they loved behind! But thank goodness they came.

I have travelled far and I have travelled wide but nowhere else calls to me like here does. We enjoy a wonderful climate even with our fair share of droughts and flooding rains mixed in. We can live mostly outdoors close to the natural world and I have a deep need to be able to do just that. We all share a love for our peaceful patch of paradise and that is something that unites us and makes us all proud Fraser Coast Aussies.

When we walk along the beach or stroll down to the shops we mostly do the right thing and pick up the litter we see. We say gday to everyone we meet and greet every morning with a cheery smile. We know who our neighbours are and we help them out whenever we can. No ‘big smoke’ rush and no big city traffic jams and no big city unfriendly rush and hurry for us..

We are Australians of the Fraser Coast. We laugh at ourselves and we have a bit of a whinge now and then. We reckon we are better than the Yanks, the Poms, the Kiwi’s and almost everyone else from everywhere else. We are irreverent and we know how to take the Micky out of almost everything and everyone especially our mates. We are not very politically correct even though many folks would like to make us so. We say it like it is and we don’t beat around the bush.

We are Ozzies. We laugh together, we cry together and we bloody well stick together when the going gets tough. On this our Aussie Day, we celebrate all that is special about this great wide brown land and the people who live upon it. We are all truly privileged to live in The Lucky Country! Lets try to remember each and every day just how truly lucky we really are!

I cannot believe it is the last day of 2011. It is certainly true the saying that the older we get the faster time flies… I hate to think how fast the years will whiz by in another 10 years time. I trust that you all had a joyful Xmas and look forward to a happy evening and a safe and healthy New Years Day. We are planning a dinner with friends and hope to see the 9pm Torquay fireworks then come home to keep our puppies safe and sound. Pet Warriors has kept me totally busy this last week even on Xmas Day when we managed to connect a potential adoptee with a pup in foster care. You see the pound doesn’t get empty at this time of the year so it was with great pleasure that on Christmas morning we were walking our 2 girls together with two foster dogs and a babysat Pet Warior dog. We had Toby, Raj and Harley with us (as ell as our two girls Becki and Ellie) and we met up with another Pet Warrior family who previously adopted Jazz and hopefully will now adopt Bella, a beautiful pound rescue Rotty girl. We mingled and realised that all 5 dogs would not be experiencing Xmas if not for us. It made us all feel happier. But this morning Toby decided to venture into the Mungomery forest on his way home… went walkabout for 30 mins then innocently arrived back into our backyard! Hmmm he will be kept under tighter control when next we take a sit down at the beach! Not a relaxing way for Graham and I to start our day…

So to Council. I still have some enquiries coming in regarding roads and drainage issues in particular and while this week is a restful week for most Council staff please do remember to ring Council if there is an emergency. Other operational issues will be attended to next week.

So while we all try to relax and enjoy family friends and the holidays I turn my attention to the next Council election due on March 31st. I detest self promotion, don’t go looking for it though at times it comes to me, but I will have to start to write up my brochures and pamphlets in the next few days. I notice a lot of new candidates focussing on perceived negatives of this Council. I sometimes smile at the generalisations being made. It is so easy to take pot shots and be critical but when one is actually faced with the reality of a situation it often looks different. Once before I stated that it is unwise to make comment about others without taking the time to walk in their shoes. I often remind myself of the importance of this. I ry not to make hasty judgements unless I know all the facts. I believe in listening and learning about both sides of any argument or debate. For instance I used to believe that the media only had the truth as its primary goal. But then I realised it is actually very big business and while a fair amount of truth is reported, the emphasis of the stories and the decision as to what to tell us about can be influenced by those paying for advertising etc. I suppose I am growing more cynical as I get older..

So please take care, keep safe, hug your loved ones, look after those canine and feline and furry and feathered innocent companions of ours and enjoy yourselves. And as always if you require help or assistance just call. I am converted to Skype now as my phone bill went atmospheric due to Pet Warriors. So maybe I will talk to you on Skype via ipad sometime soon… Best wishes for 2012 cheers, Sue

Council meeting yesterday was a busy one but there were no contentious issues that caused any great debate. Once again it was enjoyable to see our staff being nominated for customer service awards. This aspect of Council meetings isn’t usually highlighted and I think in todays world, we give much more prominence to finding fault than to giving thanks. So it is always gratifying to see our community taking the time to nominate our staff for providing high quality services. Well done to our nominated staff..

We received our Financial Report, a Landfill Gas Management report (highlighting the impost that disposing of waste charges will have on our community), a report on the progress of our Land Management Plans, (which we decided were moving slowly so have asked the CEO to investigate some deadlines for these), a recommendation to invest in some more roadworks in particular at Glenwood, Maryborough and Woocoo, our Hervey Bay Esplanade Consultation feedback was received, our Fraser Coast Community Plan endorsed and our Asset Management Plans received. We also listed some items ready for Grant applications among them security cameras and swimming pool improvements, Esplanade precinct improvements focussing on the seawall and the Discovery Centre fitout. Fingers crossed we are successful. During confidential we agreed on the tender for the Maria Creek bridge replacement. I wish little bridges were not so costly!

I recently visited Glenwood for their community chat and attended the Burrum Heads Progress Association meeting last night. It is good to see the community working together with Council to get things done. At Burrum Heads the community and Council have worked to build a new skate ramp. I was listening to one resident asking another resident that lived close to the ramp if the noise would bother her. She replied that the children needed somewhere to play and that no the noise would not be a bother. Such a positive and heart warming response. I wish I heard more positive conversations like that one sometimes! The kids and the community at Burrum Heads are doing great things. Well done everyone.

Lastly I have been burning the candle at both ends as the newly elected President of the Fraser Coast Pet Warriors. We have a totally brand new committee but there is lots to do still. Organising a new postbox, insurance, access to the bank account, building databases, fine tuning the web site (a work in progress) etc is all required and being accomplished. Finding foster carers for our poor unwanted pets is the work of some excellent hard working volunteers Marie, Leesa and Denise. They are simply amazing women. I also ‘saved’ my first little pound puppy. Jazz was due to be euthanised last Monday morning so we said we would foster her. Riddled with fleas and a very bad skin rash she was a miserable sight. A quick trip to the vet, medication and lots of washes and cuddles saw a new little girl emerge. She has found a new forever home with a neighbour so I still get to see her walking on the beach. She walks with a spring in her step now and looks as happy as can be. The feeling one gets from simply saving a little innocent life is indescribable! But juggling Pet Warriors work and Council work is a challenge so please excuse me if I am a bit slower than usual with replies to your queries etc. Take care, Sue